Most Yorkshire reservoirs are now more than 80% full but there is no end in sight for the hosepipe ban and the county remains in drought status.
The heavy rain from Storm Claudia has seen water pouring into Yorkshire’s reservoirs, rivers and groundwater over the last week at a record-breaking rate, up from 15% from an average 65.3% last week to 80.5% now.
But there is no end in sight for the hosepipe ban to be lifted due to the possibility of further problems with water supplies next year.
Dave Kaye, director of water services at Yorkshire Water, has confirmed that all the current water restrictions remain in place.
He said: “While our recovery plan is on track, Yorkshire remains in official drought status.
“Recent Environment Agency reports indicate that lower than average rainfall over winter would result in continued drought and risks to water supplies next year so we need to continue managing our resources very carefully.
“That being said, when we introduced the restrictions in July we said we would remove them as soon as resources recovered and that aim has not changed.”
He added: “The impact of storm Claudia over the weekend and our continued drought permit activity has led to another record-breaking uplift of reservoir levels.
“While nine weeks of positive recovery does not entirely make up for the shortfall left by 28 weeks of decline due to the driest spring and summer on record in the region, it represents a very encouraging step in the right direction.
“We continue to see varied levels of recovery across the region and we are working hard to balance those supplies and move water around via our grid network but, in some cases, this is not possible and those reservoirs need to recover naturally through rainfall.”
These are the current levels in the county’s reservoirs.
Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.
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